Ever get in a rut with meals? Where you eat the same thing over and over every week? Sometimes that is necessary…and helpful. Ruts keep us on the road. But sometimes a little creativity goes a long way. If you have the time (20-30 minutes) and the desire, a meal planning reset can easily jump you out of the ruts and spice up your diet.
Today is that day for me. Here’s how it worked:
Gather tools. I still use and love the mini sticky note meal plan on the refrigerator door method. So I needed those and a pen. Then I grabbed a new cookbook I’m excited about and my two go-to recipe binders. The new cookbook was tabbed with the recipes I was most eager to try. The binders are either tried-and-true recipes (rated by how much we enjoyed them) or new ones I’ve printed and want to try.
Browse and choose. First I went through the new cookbook (because…exciting!). I choose a few meals and wrote them on sticky notes. Then I paged through the binders. There were a bunch of new recipes to try there, so I wrote those down. I considered using a couple of old ones we hadn’t had for a while, but ended up having plenty of new options to try.
Add to grocery list. As I went through the recipes, I checked the ingredient lists to see if I would need anything that isn’t usually (or already) in my pantry/freezer. If so, I added the items to my grocery list as I went.
Clean up. The notes went on the refrigerator door. The books went back on the shelf. The grocery order was placed. Good to go!
This worked for me. What works for you?
The planner is 8″x10″ and includes the usual month and week spreads. The week has days on one page, and space for notes and a task list are on the other. You can easily keep track of time commitments and what you need to do during the week generally. The Notes space could be used for anything you need, including meal planning or grocery lists or project planning or books read.
A highlight of the planner is the monthly Gratitude List. What a great way to promote thankfulness in our hearts!
Speaking of gratitude…there are several spreads in the back of the planner specifically for prayer requests and documenting answers to prayer.